When and where:

Submissions will be accepted from March 1st to March 31st 2016. We
will let you know by April 30th if your work has been accepted for the
anthology. Poets will be invited to read their accepted works during the
contest reading.
The poetry contest reading will take place May 7th, 3 pm, at the Barking
Spider Tavern, 11310 Juniper Road, near the campus of Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland. Shortly after the reading, our panel of
judges will select three winners to receive cash prizes and read live
at the Hessler Street Fair itself.

The 2016 Hessler Street Fair will take place May 21st and 22nd from
11 am to dusk, rain or shine, on Hessler Road and Hessler Court in
Cleveland. The exact time of winning poets' reading will be announced
soon.

Please remember the deadline is midnight on March 31st. We will not have time to consider works submitted later than that.

Poets and artists published in the book retain all rights to their work.

Any accepted art work will be printed in black and white.

Unpublished work is preferred. But previously published work is acceptable if we love it (let us know who the original publisher is so we may include them in our acknowledgments).

The contest reading will be held at the Barking Spider Tavern on
Saturday May 7th, 2016 at 3pm. About 20 minutes after all participating
poets have read, the winners will be announced and prizes handed out. If
you have won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Place in the Hessler Street Fair Poetry
Contest in the last three years, you are welcome to submit to the book
and read your poem, but you will not be eligible to win a prize. Prize
winners are also expected to read on the designated day during the
Hessler Street Fair.

Contributor copies:

Contributors to the 2016 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology
will be able to purchase a copy of the book for half price from the
Hessler Street Fair Booth during the Fair, or at Mac's Backs Books, 1820
Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights (216-321-2665 / macsbacks.com). We
regret that we cannot afford to provide free contributor copies in print
at this time.
However, we will make a free pdf version of the book available to the
public in late 2016.

FCC Guidelines:

Poetry has always been an integral part of the Hessler Street Fair,
sometimes having its own stage on the street and sometimes combining
with music on the main stage, but always doing something interesting.
The top three winners will be given the opportunity to read from the
stage at the Hessler Street Fair, simulcast on live radio and the web,
during the Fair. Poetry read on air must not include any words
designated to be obscene language by the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission.

We
welcome a diversity of styles and subject matter. Poems that don't
meet the FCC guidelines can still be submitted and may be accepted for
publication in the book. But they won't be eligible to win a prize since
the winning poems will be read on air.